HIT skills a top draw for hospital leaders

The changing healthcare landscape calls for changing leadership skills. 

A Black Book survey of 1,515 industry stakeholders found that knowledge of health IT systems is the most desirable skill for hospital C-suite positions. Technology and data systems management knowledge was the most important skill identified for almost all chief officer positions.

About 80 percent of hospitals with more than 200 beds "relied on an internal, C-level executive" to lead their vendor selections and IT implementations, compared with 43 percent in 2012.

More hospitals are relying on senior level management to lead technology deployments and strategies, initiatives that were typically left to external consultants, according to the report.

"Every C-suite officer currently being recruited by hospital organizations needs to be, in part, a CIO," said Doug Brown, managing partner at Black Book. "Healthcare is a knowledge-based business and it runs at the speed of software in 2015."

Technology and data systems management knowledge was ranked as the fifth most important skill for CIOs.

Respondents said the top three most important characteristics of CIOs were communication skills; deployment and execution skills; and relationship and team-building skills.

Meanwhile, the report also found that hospitals are increasingly looking for executives with technological skills over finance management skills.

"The power of data and analytics is profoundly changing the healthcare business and clinical landscape, and once again hospitals need more top-management tech muscle," said Brown. 

Healthcare industry experience actually ranked #11 in the 2015 survey, falling from the list of top 10 most desirable executive traits for the first time since the survey was conducted.